Last week, I had the good fortune to attend CMP’s XChange’09 event in Washington, DC. As a vendor-centric show, this kind of event gives solution providers like my company the opportunity to see new offerings from various vendors, give feedback, and forge business relationships that can mutually benefit our companies.

But this year, one of the initiatives taking place during XChange’09 really made me, and a whole lot of others, sit up and take notice.

CMP Media partnered with Microsoft and the Framsyn Initiative to sponsor Channel@Work, a program that sponsored a large group of young people from all over the country who expressed an interest in IT careers to attend XChange. The goal was to give them an opportunity to be mentored by industry veterans, and give them a boost into the IT field.

Activities included team-building, computer-building, direct interaction with executives from IT companies, and the ability to engage with the rest of us delegates. At breakfast one morning, I got a chance to talk with a young man named Che. He told me about his job as a junior network administrator, the kinds of things he’s learned how to do from that job, and his goals for the future. I talked to him about the importance of keeping both his resume and skillset current, of picking and choosing certification exams that give the most options for huim in the future, and the importance of learning not just a given product release, but really understanding the underlying concept about how and why something works.

As part of this program, these young people were working toward completing Microsoft’s 70–653 exam TS: Windows Small Business Server 2008, Configuring, which earns not only an MCTS, but also a Small Business Specialist designation. Both of those achievements will immediately give those young people value to potential solution provider employers like me who focus on the SMB segment.

When the video above was played during the ARC awards dinner on the final evening of XChange’09, I was literally moved to tears. Seeing those kids so eager to learn and hungry for knowledge took me back to when I first started my IT career, and it made me remember how thankful I was and still am to all the people who first believed in me and gave me an opportunity in the industry, within which I’ve thrived for the last 15 years.

I truly believe that if the IT industry is to improve as a whole, it will come from mentoring programs like Channel@Work and others like it convincing young people that an IT career is one that can offer them the kind of fulfilling, rewarding life’s work that we all hope to find, and giving them the initial opportunity to find success.

Today is the LAST day that the 20% discount for MS exam discounts will still be available for certain regions/countries. So if you want some, you MUST enter the giveaway TODAY!

Honestly, the response to the MS exam voucher giveaway has been nothing short of AMAZING! So much so that actually delivering the vouchers to people will be delayed just a little bit AKA a couple of days. My primary focus today will be to make sure I have enough vouchers from the different regions to cover outstanding requests.

That being said, if you know you are going to make a larger request, unless you make it before noon Central time today, there really are NO guarantees I will have time to request enough for you.

Thanks to everyone who’s participated so far, and for all the awesome feedback, comments, and heartfelt thanks. I’m very very glad so many folks have been motivated by this, because that’s really the whole point of the entire “Gear To Get Your Butt In Gear” giveaway-a-palooza this month.

Even after the voucher offer has closed, the survey will remain active. Filling it out after the voucher deadline today will STILL give respondents an additional entry for our upcoming giveaways (slated to go live today) for some really cool stuff, including…